This is probably the first board that incorporates a hybrid design which allows users to upgrade from a Socket 754 -> 939 with the same board. When this board was first announced, many users speculated on the performance of this board. Well, we have posted our findings and found that the board's performance is on par with the reference board. The only thing that you ought to take note is that we have to use a CAS 2 2.6v module to run the aggressive timings. Our Corsair XMS3500C2 didn't boot at CAS 2.

In the BIOS, there are also options of ASync 166,133,100 operation and that should go into most retail boards. HTT can be set to operate in 8/16 for 1G, 800MHz , 600Mhz, 400 MHz. As it is a single chipset with no north south pairs to talk to, this reduces the latency and would provide a swifter computing experience.

The 3D performance is a bit lacking and I think it could be due to AGP driver issues. On the issue of PCI/AGP Fix, I have tested the board and it seems to hit the wall at 220MHz (max 300MHz). This is when I lower the multiplier to 8 and increasing the FSB to beyond 220. There are also no voltage adjustments for DIMM, The only available is for the Vcore and it is up to 1.55v.

In terms of features, this board sports 8 USB 2.0 ports (4 at the back, 4 via extensions), 7.1ch audio by Realtek ALC850. It also comes with SATA which can be used to form a RAID 0, 1 array.

Overall, an upgradeable board with good performance and price. It is really the Best Cost/Performance AMD64 board.

Performance results of the Socket 939 FX-53 on this board - ASrock K8 Combo-Z.

Suggested Retail Price USD 77

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Pros

• Socket 754->939 upgradable
• 8 X USB 2.0 
• Single chipset

Cons

• No IDE RAID
• No Voltage selections
• Too many dip switches

Ratings

Here are my ratings out of 10 stars.

Best Cost/Performance AMD64 board